Sin is defined as disobedience to the law of God. Just as modern medicine has taught us that children of parents are more likely to get a disease if their parents had it, sin spreads from parents to children. Unlike our medical example, however, the chance of inheriting the disease of sin is 100%–an absolute certainty. Every single person is born a sinner. Furthermore, the irrevocable law of God states that the penalty for sin is death and eternal punishment in the afterlife. Every single person who is born is subject to this fate.
But God created human beings for eternal fellowship with Him. Man was created to have eternal life with God but chose to sin in the Garden of Eden resulting in this separation. We no longer could be in fellowship with God because his holiness requires those around Him to be holy as well. He could also not revoke his laws, as such an act would contradict his righteousness. J. Gresham Machen said the reason for this is that
“God would be untrue to Himself, in other words, if sin were not punished; and that God should be untrue to Himself is the most impossible thing that can possibly be conceived.”
Man thus needed a substitute to pay the price of sin since the justice of God demanded that a penalty be paid. The love of God provided our substitute in the form of His eternal Son, Jesus Christ. The work Christ did in his life and death to earn our salvation is known as the doctrine of the atonement.
To earn righteousness for us, Christ had to be perfectly obedient to God His entire life. If he had not done this, we would have no record of obedience we could use to earn God’s favor. This is sometimes called his active obedience. Christ also had to suffer for us, referred to as his passive obedience. This suffering lasted his entire life including opposition from Jewish leaders, growing to maturity, and the temptations in the wilderness and culminated in the pain of the cross. On the cross, He experienced physical pain and death, the pain of bearing the sin of the world, abandonment, and the wrath of God.
We must remember that the penalty of sin was inflicted upon Christ by God the Father. It was His justice that required the payment and the Son volunteered in our place. With this the Father received full, not partial, payment for our sins. The blood of Christ poured out and we then had hope rather than the dismay of knowing we could never live up to the standards of God. Christ was our penal substitute; he took the penalty that we deserved and we were thus made clean by His blood.
We deserved to die as the penalty for our sin but Christ died as our sacrifice. We deserved to bear God’s wrath against sin but Christ died as propitiation for our sins. We were separated from God by our sins but Christ “reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2 Cor 5:18) We were in bondage to sin and to the kingdom of Satan but Christ provided us with redemption from that bondage. Christ bore our guilt but He did not become guilty.
Our violation of God’s laws required our death. God’s love for us through the death of Christ gave us new life. God’s love for us allowed Him to take on the penalty for sin Himself. He took the punishment so we could reap the rewards. Machen explains:
“God’s the cost and ours the marvellous (sic) gain! Who shall measure the depths of the love of God which was extended to us sinners when the Lord Jesus took our place and died in our stead upon the accursed tree?”
My name is Richard Smolenski and I am a theologian in training. I have an M.A. in Christian Apologetics from
1. “Sin is defined as disobedience to the law of God.”
2. “Every single person is born a sinner.”
If the above are fact, then how can an infant human disobey God’s laws? God does not create sinners. Adam and Eve were created without sin and they chose to sin. We are no different today.
The above statements are quite contrary and cannot be backed up with scripture (which is why I’m assuming none was given).
Sorry, I don’t always cite for orthodox (commonly-understood) theology. I’m not certain how these are contrary. Please explain, and feel free to cite as well.
1. 1 John 3:4 “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.”
2. Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
How sin infects us all, including infants: Romans 5:12-21:
“12Therefore, just as(A) sin came into the world through one man, and(B) death through sin, and(C) so death spread to all men because(D) all sinned— 13for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but(E) sin is not counted where there is no law. 14Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not(F) like the transgression of Adam,(G) who was a type of(H) the one who was to come.
15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for(I) many. 16And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For(J) the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought(K) justification. 17For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness(L) reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”